Michigan freshman Caris LeVert saw his first action in a regular season game Saturday at Bradley, playing seven minutes and effectively burning his redshirt. Daniel Brenner | AnnArbor.com

PEORIA, Ill. -- Michigan basketball coach John Beilein has been insistent all season that he wasn't going to waste Caris LeVert's redshirt for no reason.

Well, apparently he's found a reason.

LeVert, a 6-foot-5 freshman from Pickerington, Ohio, saw his first action as a Wolverine on Saturday at Bradley, officially becoming a member of the team's rotation and burning his redshirt in the process.

"I think we saw some things in the North Carolina State game, and one of his roles will be to be a defensive stopper," Beilein said after the Wolverines' 74-66 win at Bradley. "To really go out there and guard some people. And to also make sure (Tim Hardaway Jr.) gets more rest.

"He needs three or four minutes of rest per game, and we don't want to drop off on defense."

LeVert officially logged 7 minutes in total. He did not score and he grabbed one rebound on the afternoon after checking into the game with 15:38 to go in the first half.

Beilein said LeVert had earned the right to be in Michigan's rotation due to his consistent improvement in practice. He added that if LeVert didn't want his redshirt waived, then Beilein would have allowed him to keep it.

Obviously the freshman wanted to play, and according to his coach, he'll continue to do so moving forward.

"Caris, it was one of these things where it wasn't our intention to just burn it for two minutes per game," Beilein added. "We wanted to put him in there, put him in the top eight or nine (players in the rotation) and hopefully he'll play even more minutes than that.

"He really wanted to do it, too. If he didn't want to, we wouldn't have done it. But he was anxious to."

With LeVert now playing as a member of the rotation, Michigan played all five of its freshmen (LeVert, Spike Albrecht, Glenn Robinson III, Nik Stauskas and Mitch McGary) during the game's first seven minutes.

At one point, the Wolverines featured a lineup of Stauskas, Robinson, McGary, LeVert and Burke -- all at the same time.

"He's just willing to learn," Burke said of LeVert. "A lot of practices, he's on the scout team and he's still trying to learn all the plays. But he did a good job out there, and he made some big defensive plays.

"It's just a matter of him getting comfortable, and it's our job to keep grooming him."